Adding Videos to Product Pages Increases Conversion Rate and Average Order Value

By Peter Roesler

President, Web Marketing Pros

In a recent article, we discussed research that showed how adding videos to a site increased its visibility on Google. Better page ranks means more visitors to a site, but the value of video goes far beyond increased hits on the website. Video content has the ability to persuade consumers who are shopping online. A recent study found that adding videos to an ecommerce site dramatically increased the amount people spent.

A new study from Liveclicker found that the average online order for customers that watch video on a product page was at least 50 percent higher than a site’s overall Average Order Value for more than half of the retailers surveyed. Additionally, retailers who had a video on most of their product pages had a 68 percent higher AOV than retailers with videos on just a few of their product pages.

The “Liveclicker Video Commerce Report: Using Video to Make a Positive Impact on E-Commerce” is based on the 44 top online video programs across 14 retail verticals that are managed with the Liveclicker VideoCommerce solution. Besides including several Internet Retailer Top 500 companies, the data set had an excess of 12.5 million quarterly video plays and over 100 million video player impressions. Using this data, Liveclicker was able to identify trends and tactics that increased the performance and ROI of video in online and mobile environments.

In addition to the major findings, the report also stated that adding videos increased conversion rates. According to the study, 88 percent of respondents reported their conversion rates improved when video content was added to product pages. A little more than one in three (35%) of the survey respondents reported that adding videos led to extreme increases over their site’s average conversion rate. Just like with average order value, the more videos on the site, the better the conversion rate. Retailers with video on most of their product pages have a 79 percent higher conversion rate than those with video on just a few of their product pages.

The study shows how valuable video content has become in the age of mobile. Many of the shoppers watching the videos on retail sites came used smartphones or tablets to view them. Liveclicker’s research team found that mobile devices made up about 19 percent of e-commerce video plays in 2013. As one would expect, that percentage has been increasing. During the period of 2014 they analyzed, smartphones and tablets accounted for more than 25 percent of total video plays.

“As mobile devices become easier to shop with, they will make up a greater part of the e-commerce market, so it is important that consumers are able to engage with video on these devices,” said Ben Kopetti, director, video commerce strategy at Liveclicker in a press release. “Overall, our findings prove that video is a powerful way to engage shoppers and increase revenue. It’s no longer a ‘nice to have’ — it should be a key instrument in every brand marketer’s orchestra.

Overall, this research shows just how important it is for ecommerce sites to add video content whenever possible. Videos can convince people to buy from a particular site and it even encourages them to spend more. Coupled with SEO benefits we discussed in the previous article, it becomes clear that taking the effort to add video to a retail site is worth it.